Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
>y i needed about 3 extra hands in this exercise, my brain, hand, mouth coordination was lacking. >
Yes, 53 hands needed for this game! But he did really well coming to the target and your reward placement was strong too!
>Also the video is a bit long because I accidentally set the timer to 5 mins.>
As he grows up more, a 5 minute session sometimes is not a bad thing – this one had a good mix of food and toys, and it looks like he was happy the whole time without getting tired.
Starting from the stay: he is holding the stay well! Try not to release and move your target hand into position at the same time, because that will make the target hand movement become the release. So put the hand in position, take a breath, then either release or throw a reward back to him.
On the cookie toss start, you can put yourself in position before tossing the treat which should make it a little easier for you to not need a few extra hands đ
He also did well going to the toy reward even with all the cookies!
>My brain also mixed up some of the strike a pose 3 video and i said close for a few reps.>
Yes – save close for the threadle slices. The serp release can be his regular release from a stay.
The next step would be to have the toy (or an empty food bowl) on t he ground so you donât have move at all to get him to go to it.
Since he did really well here, you can try the threadles too!
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did a great job here!He did have a question about âget whatâ at the beginning when you wanted him to grab the toy but your hand was in the cookie pocket (I donât think he called you a bitch, though hahahaha)
He did really well with his pivoting here! I see what you mean about him being a little stronger going clockwise – it might be a stronger side for sure, but also it might be that he needed a little more room on that side. He was pivoting pretty well that side but wasnât getting his front feet up on the perch as well as he was on the other side. So on the harder side, you can deliver the treats a little closer to you so he has to step up onto the perch to get them. That should help him pivot and put his front feet on the perch.
Since this went really well, you can try this in a slightly bigger space and add one low thing taped to the ground for him to step over.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
It is great to have new people & dogs in his home base! He had the experience of a dog barking in the background which is probably new in terms of distraction at FF. And he was definitely aware of Christine with the camera and it is no biggie that he went to say hi for a moment. He came right back and was really a very focused, engaged pup!He disengaged from the tug at the beginning and went to the pile – I think what caused it was you were tugging pretty close to the pile (and the pile is an interesting visual!). Then at :29 you were wanting him to tug⌠but you turned and stepped to the pile so he read it as a âoffer behaviorâ cue. Good job going with it, he was being good!
Doing a relatively simple shpile was also good – he had to sort out his mechanics with external distractions plus some arousal from tugging, and he did great! There was a lot happening đ I noticed he was very careful with his feet on the pile which is a lot better than flinging himself all around. Good boy!!!
Keep revisiting this as he grows, so he can keep working mechanics in higher arousal & with distractions. And you can switch up the pile by making it less predictable and having more parts of it moving a bit.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Threadles are going well!! She is coming in to the threadle side pretty easily – as you add the harder angles, you can look at your threadle hand and even shake it to help her see it better. Then keep the threadle arm out and extended as you throw the reward, so she doesnât get used to seeing your shoulders turn towards the bar -we want her to go find the jump by herself and without any shoulder turn. I bet you can add your threadle slice verbal too!>but not a lot of success tugging.>
The video cut at 1:15 just as the tugging started – you can leave it in so we can see why she didnât want to tug. It might be that she is teething, or hormones, or was too close to cookie smells, or the toy was not crazy enough, or all of the above or none of the above LOL!! So leave the tugging in and we can see if it helps us figure out why she didnât want to tug.
Backing up – she definitely has the idea that is it all about back feet on the mat! She didnât want to pull off it even when you lured her LOL!! You were able to get lots of nice stepping back to the mat – SUPER NICE!!!
If she backs up into a down, reward by tossing the treat behind her so she has to get up to get it⌠then she will think that it is silly to go into a down because she will have to stand up again LOL!
How does she feel about things like wobble boards? The next step is to have her back up onto something that is angled a little, so you can put the mat over a board that is leaning up on something (very low angle, nothing dramatic). Then we get her to back up onto things that wobble a bit. If she is cool with the wobble board, this will be easy. So be sure to get her walking around on things that move a little (like the shpile game :)) and see how she feels about it all.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! This is HILARIOUS!!! Little Carly definitely loves to work work work!
>Just when she frustrates me with her anticipation, she amazes me in other ways.>
Yes, there will be times where you will find her drive to work a little annoying LOL!! But keep in mind – she is basically the high achieving A+ student in school who always has her homework done way in advance and asks for more homework LOL!! It will all turn out well.
The only thing to consider with a dog that loves the game so much is to start end-of-work routines immediately. At the end of each session, put her back on leash and give her massive rewards for coming back to the leash. Then sometimes be finished with the training, and sometimes surprise her and do more training (big reward for her!). The goal is that she always come back to the leash when you ask and especially when she thinks work is “done” -that way she will never play any keep-away at the end of a session or a run.Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
Thanks for posting this video, it is very insightful (especially with coffee in my blood right now LOL!!). Lots of good mechanics here from you!!!
I think her main question is how to ignore the toy (and later in the session, the bowl even though it was empty) in favor of doing the barrel wrap. She was better going to her right for sure, but even to the right her thought bubble seemed to be âhow do I ignore the toy & bowl?!?! How do I get that toy?!?!?â
I think you worked through it really well and there were BIG lightbulb moments in the last part of the session!!! SUPER!!!!! The last few reps are what we want the behavior to look like!!! Click/treat for you and Jazz đ
So two ideas for you to keep things going the way you had them at the end of the session and also teach her that ignoring the toy/bowl is a good thing: â¨
– Using the rocking horse setup, keep the empty bowl down there for the left turns. But, do the cues/barrel sends with empty hands (no toy, no treats). That way we can let her see that going to the barrel is what makes you bring the toy out without the added challenge of her having to ignore the toy in your hand. Yes, it means the toy might come out a tiny bit late but that is OK! It does not need to be a precision reward – you can mark and then whip it out to play– Separately from the rocking horses, you can revisit the fold it in game with forward focus at the cone with the toy or bowl. I am pretty sure you did the first part of this and she did great! But I donât think we even did the advanced level, where the toy/bowl has moved all the way around the cone⌠and she actually has to pass it to get to the cone to wrap. She was very young at the time and there were a zillion other games, so moving past the advanced level was fine. And we can come back to it now – this is what she needs now, to help her understand that ignoring the toy/bowl is the way to go đ The game I am talking about is here:
>Iâve been using her wrap cue to send out of the line up (right=wrap; left=lala). Sometimes she doesnât release on that. should I be using break and then the cue (not my preference) or just hold my position until she releases?>
I think those frozen moments were not a release question about the verbal⌠I think it was a âomg the bowl what do I doâ moment LOL!! She was facing the barrel but her brain was really thinking about the bowl behind her⌠so she was frozen in time. I bet with more exposure and understanding of ignoring the toy & bowl, she will start moving on the wrap cue with no problem.
>I borrowed an upright from a friend so hope to play with the tight turn exercise later today. >
Perfect! I know she can turn really well, so this game might end up being about ignoring the treats in your hand in order to turn away and wrap the upright. Let me know how it goes!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Still having issues posting and reading others.>
It sounds like it is a setting on your phone or on your internet app – if it is Safari, you can try adding Chrome? On my Apple devices, Safari can sometimes be nitpicky about interacting with other servers and software. But Chrome is very reliable!
She is doing well finding the backside of the barrel! Great job with your rewards and verbal! She really loved the toy and was not quick to drop it (especially on the 2nd video). You will get a quicker drop if you keep your hands lower, with both on the toy and one on each side of her mouth so her lower jaw is parallel to the ground. That naturally stops the tugging and she will let go a lot more easily.
The one thing to add Is your motion of walking up the line: release her while you are still moving and before you get to the barrel, because motion and connection are a big part of the cue here. That will let her see the cue before you even release her. When you were stationary, she had to look at you to see what the line was. Adding your motion will also allow you to show the cue while being further away from the entry barrel – your line can have you moving to the center of the bar but the connection and parallel line of motion will support the cue to the backside.
Parallel path: The first few reps where you were stationary looked great!
When you wanted her to NOT get out, you can give her more room and an indication that it is good to stay with you. And reward her for staying with you even as you are heading back to reset for the next rep: at 1:04 – 1:07, she was perfect about sticking with you but did not get a reward So donât ignore those moments đ – that might be why she went to the prop right after it, because sticking with you didnât get a reward.
So to help her see the difference, a couple of things to try:
– be a little ahead of her (start her from a stay or cookie toss) so as she starts moving up the line she is either seeing the âget outâ cue or she is seeing you being connected to her and even using a hand cue at your side to help her travel with you and not to the prop
– be a little further away from the prop, so it is easier to move with you and the get out will have more distance to it. If you are too close, the prop might look like it is on her line so she goes to it (which would be correct). But if the prop is further away and definitely not on her line, she should be able to read the different cues.Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well here!
Super excellent forward focus to the line around the cone, lovely job bringing the toy all the way back around! That is not required but it is a nice bonus đ And you also did a good job moving the toy to a slightly new spot each timeThe only thing you didnât need to do was change sides: with the goal being that the toy keeps moving until she has to pass it to get to the cone, you can keep going on the original side with the concept and keep the toy moving around in that session, til the toy gets all the way around the cone.
The side change is where she had a question (tried to go back to the original side, which is valid) and also it keeps the game too easy for too long đ So you can do all dog-on-left in one session, then all dog-on-right in a different session.
>As you move the toy further around the cone what release word are you using? Get it could mean go directly to the toy. Would I start adding the wrap cue and then say get it once sheâs rounded the cone? >
It depends on the pupâs understanding of the line: most pups will stay on their line around the cone to get the toy, because that is what theyâve learned about the concept rather than stop working and go directly to the toy. And that is a good thing for them to know: stay on your line after the marker to get to the reward, rather than cut in to dive on it. She is already showing the understanding of staying on the line. If you say âget itâ and she cuts in without wrapping to get the toy – you can still play with her but delay the âget itâ on the next rep:
As the toy gets closer and closer to her so she has to pass it, you can delay the âget itâ until she has committed to the cone by moving forward to it or arrives at it. The actual release here is when you take your hands off of the hold – so you can be quiet after you do that until it is time to say âget itâ.
You can also use a wrap verbal if you like – it is a wrap so adding the verbal is perfectly fine! The order of festivities would be something like: you hold her, the toy gets placed, you indicate forward focus, she looks at the cone, you start the wrap cue and let go of her. And when she has passed the toy and is going to the cone, you can say get it.
On the radar for this game is getting you standing up, so you will want to tie the cool new toy to a line so it is easier to wrangle and we can repeat the process with you standing – which will make for an easier transfer to a barrel for the other games.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This is probably the hardest game in week 1 and he did GREAT!Getting the verbal Over on one jump – perfect, he seemed to have no questions (and I love your payday marker :))
Getting the Tunnel on the verbal only went great too – what was he looking at off to the right side? It seemed like he was looking at something else, but he still got it right đ
Jump versus tunnel – he was great here! This is a really hard game!!!
Nice long tug sessions as rewards – that is huge because we really want him to enjoy the game. And your resets were good too – keeps him in the game while also communicating that something was not quite correct about his previous answer.
He had a question early on about jump or tunnel, but then he was a super good boy to find the jump when you asked for it again – that tunnel is delicious and you can see it almost magnetically drew him out to it before he got on the line to the jump.
You caught yourself with the verbal inflection being too soft for the tunnel –
At 2:31, you wanted the tunnel but the verbal was soooo quiet that he thought it was the jump cue.
Compare to how you said it at :51 at the start of this section (big and loud).
You fixed it on the next rep, followed by a quieter âoverâ cue then the louder âTUNNELâ and he nailed all of those.
It is an interesting illustration of how I think the dogs are processing more than just the word – the energy, volume, pitch all come into play!Great job here!!! Onwards to the handling games!
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG the lightning in the background of the 2nd part of the video!!!! Eek! But beautiful!
Very nice session here! There was a blooper at the beginning – handler blooper đ
He had a tunnel when you said over at :08 – sounds like you called him as he was exiting the wing wrap and then said over when he was already almost at the tunnel. So it was too late for him to do anything about it.
You adjusted your timing at :15 – that was great! You were not very connected (which is ideal for this game) but he was still super. Then you started being very connected so the rest all went great đ
For this setup, you can add more speed and motion (but not necessarily more connection, for training purposes đ ) You can also add the backside games as that is a different challenge too (backsides and threadley stuff)!
>Unfortunately my brain wasnât working that well and I got my fast âoverâ and slow âtunnel messed up.>
That is something I had to practice a lot without the dog to get it – I would walk around my house saying the verbals the way I wanted to say them on course LOL! Yes, I am a weirdo. But your wrap verbals sound very distinct and that is great!!!
Nice work here!!! Fingers crossed for good weather and not feeling under the weather!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Dot is really teething. She just wants to take toys and chomp on them. But, she will chase them.>
Poor girlie! Providing as much chewing outlet as possible right now is great. I also like to freeze toys for the pups (sometimes I will soak a hard toy in water then freeze it) as a way for the pups to chew on something that feels good on their gums.
>However, she doesnât want to let go even if I just grip and donât tug if she likes the toy.>
Do lots and lots of trading for either a cookie or another toy. And be sure that when she releases the toy, you donât take it away immediately and ask for more âworkâ – that is what can cause the pups to stop releasing the toy when we stop tugging. So follow the release of the toy with lots of rewards in the form of more tugging or a different toy or cookies. And to get her to release the toy, a lure/trade of a good cookie is great! The toy play is more important than whatever skills we are trying to teach, so if you end up spending most of the time in a session rewarding the release of the toy with more play or treats, that is great!
>Is there a game to get them to leave the toy in the ground? >
It is baked into a lot of the games like strike a pose (where it is dangling at first, then on the ground) and the stealth self-control games like the âfold it inâ around a cone (the toy is eventually on the ground and they pass it to go to the cone). And eventually it goes into the SSC slice games but I like to have it happening in the strike a pose games and fold it in/cone game first. I donât teach is separately at this stage because then the entire focus becomes the toy – which adds more pressure and conflict. Putting the concept into a game where she has a big reward history for doing other things can really help it along.
>Sheâs jumping up constantly trying to get the toy in my hand as we go outside.>
Behavior is communication đ so in that moment she is excited to play with you (yay!) but doesnât know what to do instead of jump for the toy. 2 options to consider:
– you can reward her for moving with you and NOT jumping up for the toy with treats tossed (or hand delivered, depending on the surface) starting every step or two
– if you donât have enough hands to carry stuff out and reward her for not jumping up, you can either have it all preset before you bring her into the environment, or have the toy tucked away so it is not visible as you move outside.That way she will either be getting rewarded for behavior you like, or she wonât be releasing behavior you donât like.
Resilience video: I am not sure the hackberries are a slice because they are so challenging but she was terrific!
She did well tugging to the start spot and doing the recalls in Hackberry Land! Super! And getting to run run run run is a good thing for her, definitely a game to play a lot where you can direct her focus away from things in the environment but she also gets to run run run đ
She was definitely enjoying the recall & tugging. I didnât see any prolonged holding of the toy here, probably because you were very quick to show the cookie to start the next rep⌠which also rewards the out of the toy.
Looking at the prop game – what seems to be happening here is that you are a little too close to the prop (the fence provides environmental pressure), so she is moving away a little to expand her field of vision: that way she can see you (and your motion & connection) and the prop. It is not a prop value thing, it is more of a herding dog âtrying to see all the thingsâ question.
Move the parallel path game off of the prop and onto the jump setup in the concept transfer (provides bigger visual info for her) and put it somewhere there is more room for you to be a shade further away. I think that will answer her questions.
>On the send, she couldnât do it on my left side. Dot kept going behind me.>
That was partially a disconnection question and partially a fence pressure question (fences provide pressure in the environment which is why they work so well :)) So having her on your left side and not being close to the fence will help.
But also, make big eye contact and have your hand back to her nose as yo start the send – that will provide clearer side info and she will move along your left side to the prop. On the sends, your arm was moving forward and she could really only see your back (1:23 and 1:53, for example) so she was moving to what might be the easier side and away from the pressure of the fence.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Looks like you hd a bit of a training party and that is GREAT!! And she seemed to do well with wearing her girl pants đ
I agree, the backsides went well. Great job with the reward placement!! The only thing I would suggest is that she starts behind you from a stay or cookie toss, not from your side. Starting behind you will allow you to show the parallel path sooner so she can go past you to it, and it will also allow you to move your position over to get further and further across the bar. Starting with her next to you and close is more of a send to the barrel and we definitely want to add more independence.
She did really well with the barrels too! She might have been a little interested in her friends for a moment but overcame that and worked beautifully. You can add more distance between them, and start to rotate earlier to add countermotion to the commitment.
Strike a pose on the flat – easy peasy! You can go to the next steps – on the flat, adding a reward on the ground (toy or food bowl) below where your reward hand is. And, you can move to the concept transfer and add this to a jump.
The Shpile game was very nice! She seemed to think it was easy which is great. You can reward more – cookies for every step or two!! Nice job with the excitement of the recall and getting her to tug. Bear in mind that walking towards the pile is actually a cue to get on it, so donât walk to it unless you want her to offer it LOL!! Keep revisiting this game so she can keep developing her mechanics: and change up the pile each time. Try to to make it weirder đ but piling stuff up a bit so it is a bit more unpredictable and stuff moves a bit more.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>As soon as I took the leash offâŚI guess I shouldnât have named her Carly (Simon) âAnticipationâ lol>
Ha! Yes, it is a great name and she was living up to her name in a good way – she loves training and doing agility, so that will be great in the long run!
One thing you can do separately from being in the agility room or being around any equipment is to take the leash off the immediately give her a big reward for not moving away. It can be pretty instant at first, then over the course of a few sessions you can delay it a bit to let her choose to stay close and just offer engagement. That will help her understand to stick with you when the leash comes off and not offer all of the behaviors she knows đ
The parallel path game went really well! She definitely has value for the jump but she also lined up with you really really well! Yay! You can see her actively choosing to come to you and not others the jump. You can use different value treats here: âboringâ treats for when you are rewarding the jump, and great treats for coming back to you!
And you can add lining up at your side for the parallel path game and the barrel games too. The barrel videos were also really strong, especially the last video: SUPER nice transition from the âreadyâ dance to the send to the barrel.
I think you are ready to try the Rocking Horses game with her! It involves her going to the barrels, yes đ but also lining up next to you between the barrels so I think it will be a nice balance of obstacle/work focus and handler focus.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I saw that you are coming to LU for some workshops. I canât do a working session with the new knee, but was thinking of auditing one of the workshops. Thoughts?>
It would be great to have you there!!
The Wednesday morning session will be useful for when she is ready for novice. But the distance and layering on Friday morning might be the most useful!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
He was definitely powering in to your hand cue here, good boy!!!! The angle of approach didnât seem to matter, he was reading the cue really well.
If you look at what he did at :37 (coming in then turning to go back out without really touching the hand – I call it a sideswipe :)) That is actually where we are going next! We start to fade out the hand touch and just keep the in-then-out which is what they will do on course in a real serp.
Most pups start to do it on their own, based on the reward placement – so if he starts doing that, it is a good thing! If he continues to give strong touches to the hand, we can change the timing of the reward marker to happen just before he touches your hand.
>We tried with ready treat but it was too tempting to go to today lol!>
Really interesting, I guess it grew in value LOL! Since we are going to want to use it for some things, you can separate it from this game and teach him that the way to get it to open is to do things that you cue, rather than running to it (or smacking it, my dogs always go through a phase of smacking it LOL!!) It can be something like sitting on the couch with the Ready Treat on the ground and ask for a treat or a hand touch. He is a smartie and will figure out to ignore it in order to get it đ
The backing up to the platform is going great! Look at him using his back feet so nicely!!!!! And there is good distance there too. And the cue! You might have surprised him the first time you added the cue here but then he nailed it the second time.
You can go to the next level now, which adds backing up onto something that moves/wobbles a tiny bit. It can be a wobble board with a bunch of towels under it or an inflatable that is under-inflated. We donât want a lot of movement to start, just a tiny bit. It is a good foundation for the teeter!
Great job here!
Tracy
